He said it easily, like you or I might say "The sun
rises in the east," but it shook me. It had never really
occurred to me how expendable bodyguards are, or how
readily they accept the dangers of their profession.
"I'll try to remember that in the future," I said with a
certain degree of grave humility. "What's more, I think
I owe you and Guido an apology. Where is Guido,
anyway?"
"Upstairs arguing with His Nibbs," Nunzio grinned.
"As a matter of fact, I was looking for you to break it
up when I found you had snuck out again."
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?"
"What for? There's no rush. They'll be arguing until
you get there. I figured it was more important to con-
vince you to quit going out alone."
I groaned a little inside, but I had learned long ago the
6 Robert Asprin
futility of arguing priorities with Nunzio.
"Well, thanks again for the advice, but I'd better get
upstairs before those two kill each other."
With that I headed across the courtyard for the foun-
tain stairs to our offices....
Courtyard? Fountain stairs?
What happened to the humble tent I was walking into
a minute ago?
Weelll... I said I was a magician, didn't I? Our little
stall at the Bazaar is bigger on the inside than it is on the
outside. Lots bigger. I've lived in royal palaces that
weren't as big as our "humble tent." I can't take any
credit for this particular miracle, though, other than the
fact that it was my work that helped earn us our current
residence. We live here rent-free courtesy of the Devan
Merchants Association as partial payment for a little
job we did for them a while back. That's also how I got
my bodyguards ... but that's another story,
